Mindful Canine

Thanks for your honest review. We deeply regret that you didn’t have a great experience with us. You made the right decision to seek professional help for your dog, and we’re happy that you have located a trainer that fits your needs. We take feedback seriously. As a result of your review we are reaching out to all current customers with a satisfaction assessment to ensure clients feel they’re making satisfactory progress and getting their money's worth. We understand how frustrating it can be to have unmet expectations about dog training, which is why we explained at your consultation that due the severity of your dog's behavior and risk factors pertaining to your case, progress was going to take some time. In your consultation we explained the importance of addressing the underlying emotion that drives fearful and reactive behavior and explained the plan for your dog's behavioral treatment. You agreed to the plan and did not raise any objections and said that you understood the estimated timeline. By signing our service agreement you agreed to the cost, terms of service, and made a commitment to follow through on any and all suggestions made. Some of those suggestions are accessible to owners who seek them out on their own on popular video websites, but much of it fell into the category of nuanced professional advice. We make it clear on our website and in our service agreement that 1) due to the complexity of each case and the unpredictability of animals that we cannot, as is the industry standard, guarantee behavior and 2) Private Lessons are owner-focused and progress is heavily influenced by an ongoing effort on the part of owners. We communicated with you at every visit what you needed to do outside of sessions to make progress toward your goals and explained to you why more progress was not being made. Our approaches are influenced by scientific research that focuses on your dog's long term emotional and behavioral health- therefore, it’s against our policy to force a dog that is displaying threatening or fearful behavior toward a stranger to be handled by that person until we are absolutely certain that there is minimal risk to all present and future encounters with people. Flooding techniques put dogs at risk for biting and in some cases that may lead to legal action or even euthanasia. We take precautions to make sure that dogs in our care are never put at risk. It’s typical of Private Lessons for owners to do most of the handling, regardless of fear, so they can bond with their dog, learn handling techniques, and prepare to work on exercises outside of sessions. We make it clear on our website and in our service agreement that, with Private Lessons, our role is to coach you to you can train your dog regardless of whether your dog is being handled by a trainer or not. The protocol we selected for your dog has yielded success for past and present clients with similar dogs and case outlooks (contingent on owner follow through), and is considered industry-wide to be among the safest and most effective modern protocols for the treatment of fear. We’re unaware of any humane method that can change extreme fear behaviors into behaviors that are truly calm and accepting to allow safe contact with a trigger in 2 minutes. We encourage you to ask questions and seek answers about the scientific basis of any technique being applied to your dog present or future. It’s our job to communicate regularly with clients and help them find ways to implement suggestions and treatment protocols so that goals can be met. We’ll do everything possible to communicate to future clients more thoroughly about how Private Lessons work, check in to find out what we can do to increase client follow-through, and provide case materials and ongoing case notes for every client's reference that add value to each learning experience. We wish you and your dog only the best!

Susan, thank you so much for your feedback! Our ultimate goal is for our clients and their dogs to have a rewarding life together- we are so glad that we could make that happen for you. Thank you so much for your follow through with Emmah's advice- that is what truly made the difference. Thank you for supporting our training program and we wish you luck in your journey with your dog!

Maranda, thank you so much for this detailed review. We cannot thank you enough for giving us the opportunity to work with your dog Jack, and for all of your cooperation to give him the best life possible. Seeking out help for your dog and following through on recommendations is truly what has made these outcomes possible! We appreciate all that you, Jack, Indy, and your family have done to inspire and help develop our homeschool program. We hope that as we continue to work with you and Jack, we can help you reach all of your ultimate goals! Thanks for choosing us as your Cedar City dog trainer!

Thanks so much for the feedback! Doc and your family were truly a pleasure to work with. Thanks for all the hard work you did to make your dog happy and be patient with him 😍 It made all the difference! Thanks for choosing us as your Cedar City dog trainer!

Kim, thank you so much for your feedback. It was truly a pleasure to work with you! You did your best to make things work with Russel, and you made the right decision to give him an optimal life in the end. We so appreciate your follow through and enthusiasm you put forth when you and Russel were enrolled in our Basic Training program. Thank you for all you did to obtain professional help and cooperate with the process to place him in a rescue setting. We will be rooting for you and and future dogs! Thanks for choosing us as your Cedar City dog trainer!